Albanian Sisters Swim to Freedom | Bodega Pop Vol. 5

Just reupped the 22-song mix here.

Ai yai yai what I went through to get this mix for you. 

Albanians do NOT like other people flippin through the CDs in their bodegas, at least not the guys who run the place on Church Avenue in Brooklyn where I scored the dozen or so CDs this mix was culled from. "Why you want this music? Eh? Why?"

Trust me, though, it's worth whatever you have to go through -- "Hi, I want because ... goshes! ... I ... I ... love music from all over the world! DON'T KILL ME!" -- to get this stuff. Because when it comes to burning pure awesomeness into discs of polycarbonate plastic, the Albanians do not fuck around. In fact, Albanians so love burning their awesomeness into discs of polycarbonate plastic that they will, more often than one's religious beliefs might allow one to imagine, team up -- heramana a hermana -- to duke out the jams with the most heavenly, angular harmonies you've ever heard.

Motrat Mustafa | Dasma shqiptare

Reupped by popular demand, here.

[Originally posted July 2, 2011.] Found on Arthur Avenue in an Albanian bodega run by what must be the single nicest bodega owner I've ever met. After letting me know in uncertain terms that "This is all Albanian music," my response, "I know; I like Albanian music, especially Fatmire Brecani," changed the game rules.



After an hour talking and listening to numerous samples, I walked out of the store with five CDs--the owner charged me only for four. This one, by the Mustafa Sisters, is my favorite of the bunch, in great part for the harmonies.

Listeners will note the abrupt endings of songs; this is because, on other Motrat Mustafa CDs I have, the songs are all run together. Every single CD in this store was pirated, and I'm guessing someone used the "2 second delay between songs" feature in iTunes when they burned their merch.

Check out this rather old VHSed music video:

Fatmire Breçani | Fatmire Breçani

Freshly reupped here.

[Originally posted January 8, 2012.]

As I said in an earlier post, there are two kinds of shop keeps: Those who are thrilled to find someone besides their usual customers combing through their tapes and CDs and those who--

Every single guy who works in the Albanian bodega on Church Avenue a few blocks from my apartment is friendly, helpful and talkative--until you ask about the music on the wall behind them.

"Thees museek NOT for you."

[extreme sarcasm] "What you like? You speak Albanian, yes?" [/extreme sarcasm]

"I don't know thees music. You don't know? I don't know."

[extreme disgust] "Just tell me WHEECH one." [/extreme disgust]

"I cannot halp you."

Given the looks some of these guys would give me, you would think I was asking them which hand to use when wiping my ass with pages from the Koran. So, how, then, did I ever manage to amass my SuperPosse of Albanian pop CDs, given this gauntlet?

I'm not altogether sure. I know I faked it a couple of times:

"No--I really--[cough]--I especially like Dava [mumbles unpronounceable last name], do you have anything else by her?"

I even tried telling the truth now and then:

"I just--I LOVE music from around the WORLD ... including Albania."

I know nothing about Fatmire Breçani other than she has one of the most powerful voices I've ever heard. And I've put her song "Ani Rushe Ruxhes Kush O Ma Ka Pa" (the 4th track on the playlist above) on nearly every mix-tape CD I've ever made anyone.

I haven't, though, been back to the Albanian bodega since well before Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Maybe they've chilled out a bit since then?

Hysni Alushi & Enkelejda Arifi | Cameri nuse me halle

Listen to the title song

Listen to "Ti pse xhelozon"

Get it all here.

This is one of the oddest, most pop-leaning albums of Albanian turbo folk I've ever heard, one that's been on my to-post list, if for no other reason than to provide you, dear reader, with a somewhat broader sense of what non-Western-saturated Albanian pop can sound like.  

I found this quiet gem (are there loud gems? loquacious gems?) a couple of months ago at the Euro Market in my neighborhood (30-42 31st Street, Astoria, NY), a legendary medium-sized market mostly famous for its rather impressive "wall of beer." (Being male, I'm decidedly fond of that particular beverage.)

Dava Gjergji | Jane me mua djemte e Kosoves

The first Albanian CD I ever bought, found at a little Albanian bodega on Church Avenue in Brooklyn. I know very little to nothing about Gjergji, other than the fact that she is wildly popular and has a magnificent voice. Since then, I've found a few other outlets for Albanian music in other areas of NYC, including a bodega and a CD shop across the street from that on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx and a small selection of CDs at the legendary Euro Market not far from where I live in Astoria. Someday, a sociology or anthropology scholar somewhere will write a dissertation in English on Albanian folk and pop that will be published by some academic press somewhere and then, maybe, I'll have a bit more context for this music.

Get it all here.